As the Wheeler’s Turn

Kaden’s preschool teacher came to visit him yesterday.  We are excited about the coop preschool that we found.  It is highly rated and it’s actually a preschool and not a daycare.  Because it is a coop we give our time in exchange for it being a lot more affordable.  The time requirements are very reasonable too- two 3 hour workdays a year, and once a month volunteering in the classroom.  His teacher interacted well with Kaden and he chatted well with her.  She asked him to show her around and he showed her his playroom – first his computer, then his duplo, and then some animal cards.  He had her read the words on the back of the animal cards with him.  He told her that he was excited to go to school but that sometimes he’s shy.  I was so proud of him being able to articulate that.  

Kaden also told her,"I like to hunt people that are lost. Sometimes friends get lost. Then they get eaten by predators like lions and tigers." His teacher asked him how you find them when they’ve been eaten and he replied,"You just get your sword and get them out."  His teacher suggested a pet doctor to do surgery instead and Kaden was ok with that idea.  He said that then they(the predators) could be our pets.  He has quite the imagination and never believes the bad guys are really bad. LOL 

Asher picked his nose yesterday and then showed me the booger on his hand and said, “Look!  Germs!”  He wanted the germs washed off.  

I love these photos my mom took of Kaden and Asher- they are so reflective of their personalities.  Kaden is a little more reserved and shy while Asher is more gregarious and outgoing.  My cute boys!

Silas continues to charm us and exhaust us.  He is starting to interact more and be awake more.  Which is great, but of course, he has his days and nights mixed up a bit. He’s starting to gurgle and coo at us which I LOVE!  Silas is really strong and can pretty much hold is head up.  He’s growing up too fast and slow at the same time.  I’m glad he’s such a sturdy strong kid cause he is going to need it with his older brothers.  They are very sweet around him when they are paying attention but they are young and not always paying attention.  

and one more photo of Silas…

Silas Facts

The hair on the top of his head is darker than either of my other two boys had BUT his eyelashes and eyebrows are lighter.  His eyelashes are shorter too.  Asher Basher has some to die for eyelashes- long and luxurious!

He is one gassy gus and he doesn’t like it.  He goes from 0-60 in seconds when he needs to toot.  He is so mellow most of the time but as soon as he needs to toot/poop he starts screaming and is inconsolable until his business is done.  It’s hard to watch him in pain like that.  Thankfully it usually doesn’t last too long.  I think it has to do with my overproducing milk so we are working on remedying that.  It is the only reason he fusses for any length of time so hopefully we can figure it out. 

He LOVES his swing. And he likes a pacifier- he even found his thumb once but we took it away and gave him back his pacifier.  That will be easier to take away at a future date… Hopefully he will be like Kaden and just like it for the first 3 months and then not take it anymore. 

His 3rd Great Grandfather was named Silas Higbee and he was married to Melissa Ann Wheeler. 

Doing a google search of the name Silas Wheeler turned up THIS Silas Wheeler.

He seems to prefer to be rocked to sleep than nurse to sleep.  He still nurses plenty but then he likes to just drift off on his own.  Very interesting….  Maybe he’ll be as easy to sleep train as he was to teach to nurse….

Every doctor who has seen him has remarked on how healthy and strong he is.  One told me he wouldn’t be a jockey- He is a big boy for his age.  (Though only in the 63% for his weight/age- that was at 9lbs 2 oz at 1 week)  The nursery docs at the hospital commented that it wasn’t just his weight- he has big hands and feet to grow into too. 

Silas is now 10 lbs!  Does that mean he’ll start sleeping through the night sooner?

His wrinkly thinking face- Wish I knew what was going through his head when he did this face! 

What Kaden and Asher have been doing

Kaden doesn’t like to be alone in the bathroom and will call Asher to come and be in there with him.  In this particular incident they are coloring sponge bob pages while Kaden does his duty.

Playing in the playroom- usually with Legos

Swimming in their pool and eating snacks in their fort in the backyard.

Doing gymnastics on the couch… My mom has also taught both boys how to do somersaults though neither of them likes to tuck their head under quite enough to do them without a little help.  I really need to get Asher in Gymnastics class so he doesn’t hurt himself. The kid has no fear and is always trying to do handstands and headstands.   He loves to “die” on the couch or one of our beds by doing faceplants or falling straight backwards without catching his fall at all.  This has resulted in a few bonks of the head when he doesn’t look where he’s falling first and cracks his head on the wall or the edge of a bed.

Sorry it’s blurry.  Kaden and Asher are playing really well together. Though if you watch closely Kaden possessively takes some Lego away from Asher and Asher just ignores it and goes right on with his building.  Kaden is busy making spiderman bad guys from his duplo. He has a great imagination and is always making action heroes, space ships, or robots from his Duplo.  Asher follows right along and makes two duplo pieces fight or flies ships that he or Kaden have built.  Such fun boys! 

The boys have been great with the Grandparents.  And the Grandparents are great with them.  The boys have been keeping so busy because Grandma and Grandpa have been playing with them.   Kaden’s favorite thing to do with them is to go to Target or Walmart and look at toys.  Kaden puts just about everything on his birthday or Christmas list.  We are very clear when we go that we are just looking at toys not buying them and he does pretty well with it.  Asher is learning the same lesson pretty well too through Kaden’s example and lots of practice.   Last weekend the boys and my parents and Matt went to our local children’s museum and loved it.  I am excited to go with them sometime.  Grandpa went home last week but Grandma stayed an extra week since I’ve been having issues with Mastitis plus we all caught a cold.  I am nervous to be on my own with all three boys and give them all the attention that they need.  I am kind of looking forward to it too though.  Wish me luck!  Grandma leaves on Thursday and then real life will begin! 

Silas had to be encouraged to come out.  Despite all the stress of moving he made himself very comfortable and I was induced on the 27th (his due date was the 20th).  For whatever odd reason my induction was scheduled for 7:30 pm on the 27th.  Which was kind of a bummer since we wanted to continue the birthday number trend- Kaden was born on 2-22, Asher on 4-14- so 7-27 would have fit in nicely (though previously I had been hoping for 7-17 ).  Anyway Silas had his own plans. 

When I went in to be induced I was having contractions that were spaced anywhere from 2-10 minutes apart and I was dilated to a 4.  So Silas only needed a little encouragement.  We got there at 7:30 and basically answered questions or chilled for about 2 hours.  At 9:30 the doctor came in to check my dilation and contractions.  They then started the pitocin.  Around midnight I decided it was time for the epidural.  The pain was enough and I was tired and Silas’s heart rate had slowed a couple times and then corrected itself so the nurse thought it was a good idea to do it then too.  They actually took me off of the pitocin for a bit because of his heart rate and gave me the epidural. Silas’ heartbeat stayed steady and they started the pitocin again a few hours later.  I went to sleep and had a wonderful nurse who was so quiet when she came into the room to check on things.  At 7:30am the doc came in to check me again and I was dilated to a 9.  My water still hadn’t broken so I was feeling some discomfort from that with each contraction.  I could still feel my legs and toes too so I worried I would be feeling a lot of this little guy’s birth.  A little while later a doc came in and broke my water(they waited until the last possible minute because it increases my risk of infection and my immune system is really low when I am pregnant).  After they broke my water I couldn’t feel anything anymore- the epidural was in full force.  At that point I was ready to go- at a 10 and Silas was in the right position. The two docs left saying that they would come back when I was ready to push.  The nurse started getting the room all ready.  I was kind of confused as to why the doctors had left and they thought better of it too.  They walked back in a few minutes later and said, “We just realized this is your third baby so you are probably ready to go.”  So ten million doctors and nurses piled into the room (it is a teaching hospital)  and they had to move my legs for me and tell me when I was contracting cause I could no longer feel anything below my waist.  It was the weirdest birth experience for me.  My contractions were still a few minutes apart and so in between all the doctor’s and nurses were chatting with us – asking us what name we chose and other baby/family things.  I was sitting there thinking, “Is it time to push again yet?”  while they were making small talk with us.  LOL  So it was a very relaxed and casual birth.  I don’t think I had to push for very long…maybe 15 minutes?  I am sooooooo thankful for the epidural because I would have been in a ton of pain otherwise.  My body was not built to birth a 9lb 5 oz baby!  I definitely felt the soreness after the epidural wore off.

Silas latched on right away and has nursed regularly ever since.  My easiest nurser yet!  Poor kid has suffered from it a bit- my body is still figuring out how much milk to produce and he’s suffered a bit from the overproduction(it makes him gassy and fussy).  I’ve read up on how to fix it and hopefully we are on our way to making his tummy feel better.  He has caught his first cold from his brothers though so we will see…..I think the fussiness may continue for awhile still. 

In his two weeks Silas has had two modes- mellow/sleepy(most of the time he is like this) or screaming his head off (this is fairly rare and only happens with good reason- he needs to poop or burp).  He smiles a lot in his sleep and some while he is awake.  He is beautiful and healthy and we couldn’t ask for a better baby.  He sleeps really well in his swing during the day which will be a huge blessing once my mom is gone and I need to be more mobile around the house(it’s a very mobile swing). 

His brothers mostly ignore him but when they do pay attention to him it is to give him loves and talk to him.  Kaden will ask to hold him for a few moments at a time.  Asher likes to point out his eyes,nose, and mouth and count his fingers and toes.  The other day I called out to Kaden that Silas was awake.  Kaden then called out to Asher that the baby is awake and they both came running to see him.  They didn’t stay long but I love how excited they were to talk with their new baby brother.   I think Kaden’s enthusiasm about Silas has helped Asher a lot.  Still we’ll see how they feel about him after my mom goes home and there isn’t someone to meet their needs right away.  Asher has had a few times where he tells me to put the baby down because he needs me.  Asher is pretty nice about it but very adamant that it is time for me to put the baby down and hold him instead.  Asher is my mama’s boy. 

Born 7-28 at 8:33 am

9lbs 5 oz

21 in.

healthy eater

now we need to sleep!

Our fourth was really low key since we were all fighting a cold. But we still managed to do a few fireworks in the backyard. We did a few during the daylight since we had so many and we had some that were best seen in the day like the colored smoke and snakes. Here’s a video of the boys with sparklers during the day.

Asher obviously was fascinated by the sparkler during the day. At night his reaction was a little different.

He watched the little fireworks that Matt lit off through his fingers and up close to me.  Cute boy.  Oh and no worries about the end of the above video- Asher’s finger touched the hot sparkler but he didn’t get burned.  It was hot enough to startle him but not enough to do any harm.

After this we went on a drive up in the hills near our house.  We could see all of the city and all of the fireworks going off- both legal and illegal.  We were pretty far away from the city show but the closer illegal fireworks made it cooler.  It was nice to not have to deal with large crowds but still see a bit of a show.

Matt started work on the 6th.  He’s doing training this week and is liking everything so far.  We are really, really, loving the 15-20 min. commute.

My Great- Aunt and Uncle stopped by today on their way home from the family reunion in Michigan.  They are the best!  Their car needed some fixes so we got to hang out with them for a lot longer than they had originally planned on staying.  It was great!  Hopefully they will have reason to drive through here more often.   It was fun to hear about the reunion.  I’m so sad we missed it.  Love you family! 

Man, it is such a pain to switch insurance and get a doc appt.  I finally got one at UNM hospital and that place is a labyrinth!  The doc visit went fine, I am now all in their system- (yay!  since I am 37 weeks and 3 days I am also considered full term) and I will be seeing the high risk doc on Tues. (because my immune system is low- pregnancy has been normal)   Of course, that is Matt’s first day of work so I need to find someone to watch the boys because I am not sure I have energy for that maze, a doc appt, and the boys.  We are all currently working on colds though so I’m not sure if I will be able to ask someone to watch them. Oh well… we’ll give it a couple days and then cross that bridge… Kaden has been asked on a playdate for Tuesday so as long as he is better I may be able to make it work. Anyway…the important stuff…  Heartbeat was good and I’ve only gained 30 pounds with this one!  My lowest pregnancy weight gain so far even though I’ve been eating Blue Bell ice cream every day ever since we got to ABQ.  Yum!  Guess my ice cream diet is working .  18 more days until my due date and well…. nothing is ready except we bought paper plates and bowls and plastic silverware to give me one less thing to worry about. 

The boys don’t mind our unpacked state.   They are enjoying the playroom anyway.  We’ve made some progress since this video was taken.

We made it!  And so did all of our stuff!  There are a few scratches here and there but overall everything seems in tact and usable.  Poor Matt had to put up with my schedule for driving.  I just get tired too easily!  The first night we had hoped to make it to Needles but we left much later than we had originally planned (cleaning out the old house- it paid off though and we are getting all of our deposit back).  So we got only about two hours out of town before I made us stop. 

We made up for lost time the next day and drove straight to Flagstaff where we stayed with some of Matt’s friends from High School (Aaron and Cami).  They were the perfect hosts and it was wonderful to take a day off of driving and spend time with them.  Their kids loved playing with ours, especially their 8 year old daughter Kiva(she just followed them around the whole time), so it was a real break for Matt and I.  They showed us around Flagstaff and we relaxed at the house playing rock band.  Poor Kaden wanted to play so badly but had no idea how to keep up with the game.  He did pretty ok with the singing as long as he made noise into the microphone.  Asher loved the real drums that they had.    Thanks Aaron and Cami for taking care of us and making our drive more of a vacation!

We thought we could make it all the way to ABQ the next day but instead we took a detour through the Petrified National Forest.  It was beautiful though not the perfect detour for us since it was mostly a drive and stop kind of park and we had had enough of driving.   The places we did get out were fun.  We went to a cool store that had a fountain/pond with real turtles inside of it and tons of cool rocks.  Outside they had fun dinosaur statues. It was our best bathroom stop. 

Because of the drive through the Petrified National Forest we were still about 2 hours away from ABQ at 10.  I couldn’t see well enough to drive anymore and I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping on an air mattress in our empty house.  So I convinced Matt to stop for the night.  We got a good night’s sleep and arrived at our new house early enough the next morning to meet the internet guy and our trailer. Matt pulled the futon mattress out of it for us to sleep on(the boys got the air mattress) and the plastic pool for the kids to swim in our new backyard. Swimsuits weren’t unpacked so I can’t post the photos of their first swim.   Later that week we had a great turnout from the ward to unload our trailer into our house.  Since then we have been constantly cleaning, slowly but surely unpacking, buying furniture off of craig’s list, and trying New Mexican restaurants.  Hopefully I will have everything set up soon so I can post photos.  Here are a few that Matt took when he rented it.

This is the room you see when you walk in the house.  It is supposed to be the dining room but we used a carabineer to raise the light up and it is our media room complete with the new TV (our old one broke just before we moved) and console(our old one got damaged enough in the move that Matt didn’t trust it with the weight of the new larger TV so it is now our Train Table for the boys)  Matt got as an early Father’s day present.

You see this room when you look left from the door.  It used to be the garage I think.  We are using it as our play room plus I will have a craft desk in there.

This little room is at the end of the playroom.  It is Matt’s office.  We put a gate up so the kids can’t get in. It’s small but it works out pretty well for him.

Looking into the kitchen… Not nearly as much cupboard space as I use to have so that’s been an adjustment.

This is supposed to be a family room I guess but it made more sense to us to make it a dining room. We’ll just keep all the kitchen mess in one room…

Our backyard…. Love the shade from the tree.  Hate that it’s all gravel though I am sure we will appreciate it when we get our water bill.

More backyard.  Boys love digging in the dirt.

Both of the bathrooms have this nice tile in them.    They were pretty dirty when we moved in but magic eraser is my new best friend.  They clean up nice.    Our washer dryer is in the guest bathroom.  It’s kind of an inconvenient spot but I LOVE having it inside! 

There are three bedrooms…just your basic bedrooms… smaller closets than we are used to but they have well built shelves and stuff in them so they are efficient.

All in all we are enjoying it here.  We arrived just in time for a heat wave so we are getting adjusted to the dry heat fast!  The boys started swim lessons today and LOVE them.  Kaden started crying when it was time to get out.  His lessons are in a wading pool so he can stand the whole time and he was just grinning the whole way through the lesson.  Matt is doing the parent/tot with Asher and Asher was a little more hesitant than he expected but still seems to be enjoying the class.  I wish we could continue them throughout the summer but with the baby coming the end of July these two weeks are all they will be able to do.  Tomorrow we will go and see a possible preschool for Kaden.  Only downside to it is it is on the other side of town.  All the ones on this side of town are full or they are preschool/daycare which is not what we are looking for.  There is a preschool at the high school but I am sure it filled up long before we got here. I will call tomorrow morning just to be sure. So yeah… we are adjusting and hope to begin exploring more soon.  

So Asher is having a hard time adjusting to a big boy bed.  He doesn’t think so of course.  He loves the freedom of it. He’s really not toooooo bad.  But we’re so used to it being easy when he was in the crib and Kaden would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.  Kaden still goes to sleep easily usually.  Tonight he was a bit of a partner in crime with Asher though.  Asher cannot open the door to their room yet(well at least not consistently).  All of a sudden Asher was in the living room with us.  When Matt took him back to his room he asked Kaden if he helped Asher open the door.  At first Kaden said no but then he admitted he helped.  Matt asked him why and Kaden replied, “Because we’re secret agents.  Secret Agents sneak past Mama and Dada, get the golden treasure, and thengo back in and go back to bed.”  I like the go back to bed part….

Asher will go to bed easier if he falls asleep in Kaden’s bed.  Sometimes Kaden will let him but usually he just wants to go to bed on his own.  Here’s a cute photo of them that MAtt took.

And here’s a cute one of them at the National Petrified Forest on our drive to ABQ.

My little Asher Basher thinks he is such a man.  He cracks us up.  He moves everywhere he goes with purpose and drama.  There are so many things he does that I’ve been meaning to write down and now my mind is blank.  yikes.  I started this awhile ago but with moving I haven’t had time to finish it…so here goes…

He talks mostly in one word communications.  He has a few multi word phrases too like, “that way!”  and “help me!”   and “need you” and “my turn” and “hold this.”  The other night Matt and I were packing.  Asher heard the packing tape being stretched out onto the boxes from the other room.  We hear his little voice saying, “What’s that?”  and then his little feet pattering into the room with us.  As he walks in he asks, “Doing?”  I love his little conversations.  He is always repeating the last word that we say.  It’s amazing to me how much he understands and how much he communicates with his small vocabulary. 

Even since I wrote this his language has grown.  He’s starting to take in full sentences, mostly “I want it” or “I need you” (which means he wants to be picked up and cuddled).  He always wants to know where Matt and I are and will call for one of us and then call out “are you?” (meaning where are you?).  He does that for his toys or any item he is looking for too.  So often he’s looking for Buzz light year or Darth Vader action figures and we’ll hear him call out their name over and over and “Are you?”  It’s pretty dang cute. 

He’s started to be picky about the shows that he and Kaden watch together.  With moving, the TV has been on WAY too much.  We now have to go through the movie list until they both agree on one.  Asher seems to like the Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse shows we have the best.  He also LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba.  Both boys will sing the songs randomly throughout the day.  I love it when it gets them to try a new food (to join the party in their tummy) or not eat food off of the floor and wash their hands  (because of the tiny ugly germs). 

Asher loves to sing!  Often he’ll sing himself to sleep.  And he always has to sing along at church.  The only song he seems to know the words for is Happy Birthday to you.  He and Kaden are always singing the Darth Vader theme music from Star Wars.

Asher loves his action figures as much as Kaden.  The other day he had a hippo and a shark facing each other down.  The shark won.  He has a great imagination.  I’ve brought some action figures for them to play with in sacrament thinking they would be quiet toys.  Yeah… not so much with Asher.  Those guys fight and then yell as they fall.  “ahhhhhhh!”

Asher Basher is mister destructo and into everything.  If there is anything semi-dangerous lying around the room Asher heads straight to it.  He is definitely 2!  He doesn’t listen and  he throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way or when he can’t communicate what he wants.  He’s had everything pretty easy until now and will continue to do so but we are going to have to start setting up more boundaries/discipline for him so he doesn’t hurt himself!

Asher loves water!  He frequently climbs in the shower with either Matt or I and loves baths or swimming in their little pool in the backyard.  He’s jumped in the shower with all of his clothes on one or two times.  We’ve got to get him in some swim lessons! I’ve hesitated because of his eczema but I’m not sure I can take that joy away from him for much longer.

He is now sleeping in a big boy bed!  It works out fine for naps usually because he likes to sleep in Kaden’s bed.  Bedtime is not so easy and since he gets hyper when he’s tired we are afraid he’s going to jump and hit his head on something!  Some nights are easier than others.  Thankfully Kaden falls asleep easily no matter what shenanigans Asher is acting out.

We love our cuddly Asher Basher and all the character and personality he brings to our family!  He is really such a loving sweetheart.  

I am in shock!  4 sounds so old! Only one more year until kindergarten!  My little boy is growing up fast!

He’s been so funny about his birthday.  He’s been asking for things a lot lately (since Christmas). We keep telling him he has to wait until his birthday and he is not happy about that.  He kept saying he didn’t want his birthday to come and he didn’t want to get any bigger.  The morning of his birthday however he was very excited and kept asking when his birthday would start (translation: where are my presents?).  He jumped up and down on our bed and shouted,”I’m not 3 anymore, yippee!”  And “I need to open presents to see if I got Star Wars guys!”  Luckily the Star Wars wish was no surprise to us and he did get a few.  We let him open a few presents throughout the day but we made him wait for Grandpa to open the majority of his presents. 

Grandpa Wheeler just happened to have business that brought him to town on Kaden’s birthday.  Kaden loved having Grandpa here for his special day.  They made his brownies together and went with Matt and Asher to get Garlic Jim’s pizza for dinner.  Yum!  We had a two for one coupon too.   After opening his many presents (yes he is a little bit spoiled) Grandpa prompted Kaden to say thank you to his Mom and Dad.  Kaden said,”Thanks Mama and Dada for this perfect day!” (the perfect day part was totally his idea even if the thank you was prompted ) 

Kaden is a pretender and he’s into his action figures so we got him some Marvel action figures, Star Wars action figures, Toy Story action figures, and a few Transformers.  Asher is eating them all up too.  His favorites are the Toy Story action figures and he never lets either Buzz or Woody out of his sight.  Kaden’s favorites are the Star Wars figures so he’s nice and let’s Asher play with the Toy Story figures without much fuss.  Kaden is always building spaceships out of his duplo and now his Star Wars guys ride on his spaceships.  It’s pretty cool. Grandma and Grandpa got him a cool walkie talkie set and a cool truck.  He’s going to have a blast with the walkie talkies once we show him how to use them.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.